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2023 Thanet District Council election>4 May 2023| next_election1 = 6 May 2027| session_room = | session_res = | session_alt =| meeting_place = Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, CT9{{nbsp}}1XZ www.thanet.gov.uk}}| footnotes =| motto = }}Thanet District Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council. Much of the district is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.LEGISLATION UK, act, Local Government Act 1972, 1972, 70, 31 May 2023, WEB, Election Maps,weblink Ordnance Survey, 29 September 2023,

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since the 2023 Thanet District Council election.WEB,weblink Labour Takes Overall Control of Thanet Council Following Election Success, Bailes, Kathy, 2023-05-04, isleofthanetnews.com, 2023-06-07, NEWS,weblink Thanet result - Local Elections 2023, BBC News, The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:WEB, Compositions calculator,weblink The Elections Centre, 4 March 2016, 29 September 2023, NEWS,weblink Thanet, 15 December 2011, BBC News Online, {| class="wikitable"! colspan=2|Party in control || YearsConservative Party (UK)}} 1974–1987No overall control}} 1987–1991Conservative Party (UK)}} 1991–1995Labour Party (UK)}} 1995–2003Conservative Party (UK)}} 2003–2011No overall control}} 2011–2015UK Independence Party| 2015–2015No overall control}} 2015–2016UK Independence Party| 2016–2017No overall control}} 2017–2023Labour Party (UK)}} 2023–present

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1999 have been:WEB, Council minutes,weblink Thanet District Council, 27 July 2022, {| class=wikitable! Councillor !! colspan=2|Party !! From !! ToLabour Party (UK)}} align=right22 May 2003ACCESS-DATE=27 JULY 2022 DATE=1 MARCH 2013, {{party name with colour22 May 2003 align=right|13 May 2010Conservative Party (UK)}} align=right8 Dec 2011ACCESS-DATE=27 JULY 2022 DATE=12 MAY 2014, {{party name with colour8 Dec 2011 align=right|12 May 2014Labour Party (UK)}} align=right21 May 2015ACCESS-DATE=27 JULY 2022 DATE=19 FEBRUARY 2018, {{party name with colourfull=yess}} align=right28 Feb 2018Conservative Party (UK)}} align=right10 Oct 2019TITLE=THANET COUNCIL LEADER QUITS POST AMID TORY BID TO OUST HIM ACCESS-DATE=27 JULY 2022 DATE=22 APRIL 2021, {{party name with colour10 Oct 2019 align=right|22 Apr 2021Conservative Party (UK)}} align=right7 May 2023Labour Party (UK)}} align=right|The current composition of Thanet District Council's Cabinet is as follows:WEB,weblink Cabinetmembers, {| class="wikitable"|+Party key{| class="wikitable"!Post! colspan="2" |Member! colspan="3" style="background:#aaeecc;" |Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council|Leader of the CouncilCabinet Member for Strategy and TransformationRick Everitt|Deputy Leader of the CouncilCabinet Member for HousingHelen Whitehead!colspan="3" style="background:#aaeecc;" |Other Cabinet Members|Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Coastal ServicesSteve Albon|Cabinet Member for Regeneration and PropertyRuth Duckworth|Cabinet Member for NeighbourhoodsHeather Keen|Cabinet Member for Corporate ServicesRob Yates

Composition

Following the 2023 election the composition of the council was:WEB,weblink Local elections 2023: live council results for England, The Guardian, {| class="wikitable"! colspan=2| Party! CouncillorsLabour Party (UK)}}30Conservative Party (UK)}}17Green Party of England and Wales}}5Thanet Independents|full=yes}}3Independent politician}}1! colspan=2|Total! align=center|56The independent councillor and the Greens sit together as the "Green and Independent Group".WEB, Your Councillors by Political Grouping,weblink Thanet District Council, 1 October 2023, The next elections are due in 2027.

Elections

{{also|Thanet District Council elections}}Since the last boundary changes in 2003 the council has comprised 56 councillors representing 23 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.LEGISLATION UK, si, The District of Thanet (Electoral Changes) Order 2001, 2001, 3556, 1 October 2023, The district straddles two constituencies, both of which extend beyond the district boundary to include parts of neighbouring districts:

• North Thanet, represented by Roger Gale, Conservative.
• South Thanet, represented by Craig MacKinlay, Conservative.

Premises

The council is based at the Council Offices on Cecil Street in the centre of Margate. The building was originally designed in the early 1970s to be a new headquarters for Margate Borough Council, but by the time the building was finished in 1974 that council had been abolished and absorbed into the larger Thanet District Council. The building was formally opened on 9 April 1975.NEWS, New council offices will be tight squeeze,weblink 27 July 2022, Thanet Times, 14 August 1973, Margate, 3, NEWS, Library and offices opened,weblink 27 July 2022, Thanet Times, 15 April 1975, Margate, 4,

Towns and parishes

The district contains 11 civil parishes, covering most of the area. The parish councils for Broadstairs and St Peter's, Ramsgate, and Westgate-on-Sea have declared their parishes to be towns, allowing them to take the title "town council". The two parishes of Sarre and St Nicholas-at-Wade share a grouped parish council.WEB, Parish Council contact details,weblink Thanet District Council, 1 October 2023,

• Acol
• Birchington
• Broadstairs and St Peter's
• Cliffsend
• Manston
• Minster
• Monkton
• Ramsgate
• Sarre
• St Nicholas-at-Wade
• Westgate-on-Sea

The town of Margate comprises an unparished area. The Thanet councillors representing the wards covering Margate act as charter trustees, choosing one of their number to be the mayor of Margate each year.WEB, Mayor and Charter Trustees of Margate,weblink 27 July 2022,

Demography

{{also|List of people from Thanet}}According to the 2011 census, the population of Thanet was 134,186, an increase of about 6000 in the ten years since the previous census.WEB,weblink Table 2 2011 Census: Usual resident population and population density, local authorities in the United Kingdom (Excel sheet 212Kb), Office for National Statistics,

Economy

The whole district suffers from seasonal unemployment, in spite of its proximity to London, because of various factors, among them being inward migration, high numbers of old people, and low numbers of affluent people. It is not helped by poor overall indicators for health.Association of Public Health Observatories - Health Profiles APHO Health Profiles {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080609153419/http%3www.communityhealthprofiles.info/profiles/hp2007/lo_res/29UN%2DHP2007.pdf |date=9 June 2008 }} In a study of resilience to economic downturns, Thanet was poorly rated at 295th out of 324 districts.NEWS, https:www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-11164337, BBC News, Thanet least resilient to economic woe, research finds, 9 September 2010, Unemployment levels are nearly twice the South East of England as a whole, and as a result a great deal of planning is being done to encourage more businesses to relocate to the District.WEB,weblink Thanet District Corporate Plan 2007, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080924064711weblink">weblink 24 September 2008, dmy-all, The Thanet & East Kent Chamber produces a weekly business digest, the Thanet & East Kent Insider, which reports on economic activity in the private and public sectors.New projects underway include: A new community centre for Broadstairs. Redevelopment and renovations are to be undertaken at Margate's Dreamland (a Heritage Amusement Park); Cliftonville (Lido site); and a Holiday Inn (hotel), now open. A large retail and residential development on Ramsgate seafront, known as Royal Sands, started construction in 2011 but was quickly halted. A multimillion-pound art gallery The Turner Contemporary (opened by Tracey Emin in April 2011) in Margate and this has created the opening of many new shops in the Margate old town and visitor numbers have far exceeded expectation. Margate has been chosen as a Mary Portas retail town. Large investment and building work is taking place in schools across the island.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}In addition, the District Council has introduced an empty property initiative and has compulsory purchased empty and derelict buildings with the objective of bringing them back into use.The Thanet Offshore Wind Project, near North Foreland, began operating in September 2010. The project is expected to have a total capacity of up to 300 MW which, on average, is sufficient to supply approximately 240,000 homes with green energy. The project will thus make a significant contribution to the government's national and regional renewable energy targets. Thanet Earth is the largest greenhouse development in the UK, covering an area of 91 hectares with 7 greenhouses each the size of 10 football pitches producing cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers all year.WEB,weblink Thanet Earth, www.thanetearth.com, Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs each have shopping centres with a mix of local and national retailers complemented by Northdown Road, Cliftonville, Westgate and Birchington-on-Sea. Westwood at the centre of Thanet has seen much major development in recent years with the building of Westwood Cross shopping centre which is the home of national retailers and several restaurant chains including a Travelodge hotel. Associated development has taken place around the shopping centre spawning other retail parks. National retailer Primark opened a new superstore in October 2012, the largest Primark store in Kent.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Transport

File:Unit 395008 at Ebbsfleet International.JPG|thumb|Thanet is now linked to London by high-speed "Javelin" trains.]]The rail connections are via the Chatham Main Line through Margate to Ramsgate, and the Ashford to Ramsgate (via Canterbury West) line. New high-speed rail links from London to Thanet began in December 2009, and it is now possible to travel from Margate to St Pancras railway station at an average speed of 96 kmh (around 60 mph); maximum speed of 225 km/h (around 140 mph). This will form part of the UK's first true high-speed commuter service, according to the South Eastern Railway Company.WEB,weblink Southeastern 2009 - your journey starts here: Home, Main road links are the A28 which brings traffic from Canterbury and Ashford; and the A299, north coast route. The Saxon Shore Way Long distance footpath skirts the coast.There is an airport, now closed, at Manston,NEWS, Kent's Manston Airport to close on 15 May,weblink 21 January 2018, BBC, 6 May 2014, formerly RAF Manston, but later renamed by its commercial operators as Kent International Airport. The airport closed permanently on 15 May 2014. Because it was used as a U.S. airbase during the Second World War it has one of the longest runways in the UK, and while open it was designated by the United Nations as an emergency landing site for aircraft in trouble.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}Ferry services are no longer running from the Port of Ramsgate, and the council is currently in dispute with the former operators over the payment of £3.3 millionNEWS,weblink TransEuropa Ferries Thanet District Council, BBC News, 21 May 2013,

Health

Thanet has a large hospital: the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, known as the QEQM.WEB,weblink Overview - Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital - NHS Choices, Extension work which started in 2007 has made the QEQM a major hospital site.As of July 2010, overall indicators of health were poor for Thanet:Association of Public Health Observatories, Thanet Health Profile {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718100545weblink |date=18 July 2011 }}, July 2010{{needs update|date=December 2020}}

• Health is worse in Thanet than in England on average
• Life expectancy is lower than for England
• There are health inequalities: in deprived areas life expectancy is 5 years lower for women and 10 years lower for men
• Teenage pregnancies are high compared to the England average
• Estimated smoking rates are average but death rates from smoking are significantly higher
• Binge drinking is around the national average
• Children are significantly less active than average
• Significantly higher than average number of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-specific conditions
• Significantly higher than average rate of diabetes
• Significantly higher than average rate of mental health problems

Media

Local newspapers are the Thanet Extra, part of the KM Group; Isle of Thanet Gazette and Thanet Times (merged with Adscene, October 2009), (the Thanet Times was withdrawn in October 2012) all owned by Northcliffe Media; and the midweek Your Thanet published online by KOS Media. The county-wide newspaper Kent on Saturday also serves the district.Local radio stations are;

• KMFM Thanet (previously known as Thanet Local Radio) owned by the KM Group. (All Programmes are networked with other KM Kent stations).
• Community non-commercial station Academy FM Thanet on 107.8FM and online and via mobile app it broadcasts from within Marlowe Academy, Ramsgate.
• The county-wide Heart Kent
• BBC Radio Kent

National TV stations carry regional news:The ITV1 service is provided currently by Meridian Broadcasting; and the BBC South East Today.Thanet also has a local online radio and podcasting service currently operating online only known as 'Thanet Community Radio' (TCR). The station works closely with Dover-based 'Dover Community Radio' (DCR) which operates in a similar way.

Education

(File:Thanet School of Art 1928 0199.jpg|thumb|Margate Adult Education Centre, built in 1928 as Thanet School of Art.)Thanet has a wide variety of local schools including approximately 41 primary schools such as Drapers Mills, Palm Bay, and Upton. Outstanding secondary schools include Dane Court Grammar, and Chatham and Clarendon Grammar. The community learning within the district is varied and wide, including charitable training organisations such as East Kent ITeC Ltd, and organisations such as Margate Adult Education Centre, Thanet Skills Studio and Thanet Stage School. East Kent College is a provider of further education in Thanet and a Training Provider that works with local businesses to raise the level of education across the region. Canterbury Christ Church University currently has a campus in Broadstairs, serving Media, Art and Design subjects.

Climate

Thanet enjoys a maritime climate, being surrounded on three sides by the sea. This generally results in mild winters and warm, dry summers.

References

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